PBS高端访谈:通用汽车第一次以女性CEO命名

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: General Motors has named a new CEO, and she's a woman, one who worked her way up in a company once known as an old boys club. The news comes one day after the federal government sold the last of the GM shares it purchased during the big auto¹ bailout.

　　Micheline Maynard long covered the auto industry, and she is now a contributor to Forbes. She's a lecturerat the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and the editor of a new journalism² project, Curbing³ Cars: How We Get Around.

　　Micki Maynard, hello. Welcome back to the NewsHour. Tell us, who is this new CEO, Mary Barra?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD, Forbes.com: So, it's understandable if people haven't heard of her, Judy, because she's been one of those people that's well-known to folks inside General Motors, but not particularly well-known outside of General Motors.

　　She's someone who went to the company in college. Essentially⁴, she went to what used to be called the General Motors Institute. It's now Kettering University. And one of the things that you do when you're there is go to work for General Motors in the summer. So, she's only 51, but she's been at General Motors for 33 years.

　　Some of her other jobs have included running an assembly plant, the Detroit Hamtramck plant. She's run human resources. Most recently, she was in charge of General Motors' global product development operations. And that's where she caught the eye of Dan Akerson, who is the outgoing CEO.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And you wrote today about that. Why did he have his eye on her? What was it about her?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD: Well, one of the things about Ms. Barra is that, first of all, she comes from within General Motors.

　　And Detroit over the last few years, since General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy⁵, since Ford⁶ got in financial trouble, has been run by outsiders as CEOs. Fiat⁷ controls Chrysler. The Fiat CEO runs Chrysler. Mr. Akerson came from a private investment firm in Washington, and he was named to the GM board by the Treasury⁸ Department, and he ended up running the company. And then, obviously, Alan Mulally is running Ford Motor Company, and he came from Boeing.

　　So Mary Barra is an insider. Mr. Akerson, I think, wanted to make a bold choice. I think he was looking for someone who would be different than the typical old-style General Motors CEO. He obviously liked her. Hesaw a lot of her talent, and he decided⁹ that, this was going to be my choice.

　　And that wasn't -- that wasn't a secret in Detroit. Everyone here knew for about the past year that she was being groomed¹⁰ to be CEO. I was surprised that it happened this quickly, because she's 51, and, in Detroit, that's still relatively¹¹ young to be a CEO.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, having said all this, what's the significance of this? It is deeply unusual to havea woman in this position, isn't it?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD: Right.

　　So if you look at all the Fortune 500 companies, even though we hear a lot about women CEOs, there are only 22 in all of the 500 companies. There's never been a woman CEO in Detroit, although, through the years, I have seen a lot of talented women who could have risen to the position if they had had the patience or the opportunity.

　　Obviously, it's a huge issue for Detroit that women have not risen to the top of the companies, because women now buy more than half of the vehicles sold in the United States. And so you have a very male environment selling vehicles to a very female audience.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Micki, the other story we're -- we're obviously following today is the report yesterday that the government sold its last shares in GM. This is four years after the federal government, in a very controversial move, bailed¹² out this big automobile¹³ company.

　　Now that this has happened, where does it leave GM? Are the lessons from this experience clear yet?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD: Well, General Motors now is an independent company again without government ownership.The U.S. taxpayer¹⁴ lost about $10 billion on the deal, and it was always understood from the beginning thatthere would be some money that was never paid back by GM. Where it least General Motors is in an extremelycompetitive automobile market. You know, back 10 years ago, 15 years ago, General Motors had about 30 percent of the car market. They now have about 18 percent.

　　Ford is very close behind them. Toyota is close to them. So we have a market where the big shares that aredivided up are much more equal than they were back in the days when GM owned the car market. So GM has to compete for buyers. It also has to compete in the time when many Americans are rethinking the way we get around. They're thinking about, do I need to own a car? Do we need three cars? Can we get along with two cars?

　　Maybe I will take the bus. Maybe I will take the new streetcar that's in town. And so consumers are rethinking their automobile use at a time when there's so much competition. There's a fight for every single buyer.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And just finally, quickly, is there a lingering effect from this government, heavy government role in GM over the last several years?

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD: Well, GM got the nickname "Government Motors." And I think it will be a long time before it's able to shed that.

　　And GM became a source of political controversy¹⁵. And that's something that it will have to work very hard to overcome as well.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Micki Maynard, we thank you.

　　MICHELINE MAYNARD：My pleasure, Judy. Thanks a lot.

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

3 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

6 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

7 fiat   

n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布

参考例句：

• The opening of a market stall is governed by municipal fiat.开设市场摊位受市政法令管制。
• He has tried to impose solutions to the country's problems by fiat.他试图下令强行解决该国的问题。

8 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 groomed   

v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的过去式和过去分词 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗

参考例句：

• She is always perfectly groomed. 她总是打扮得干净利落。
• Duff is being groomed for the job of manager. 达夫正接受训练，准备当经理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

12 bailed   

保释，帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Fortunately the pilot bailed out before the plane crashed. 飞机坠毁之前，驾驶员幸运地跳伞了。
• Some water had been shipped and the cook bailed it out. 船里进了些水，厨师把水舀了出去。

13 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

14 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

15 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。